


Eve's Story

by MrProphet



Series: Glitches [1]
Category: WALL-E (2008)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-21
Updated: 2017-04-21
Packaged: 2018-10-22 04:49:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10690059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrProphet/pseuds/MrProphet





	Eve's Story

_EVE-24B_   
_log of survey mission 216/STR 228164.37 days elapsed flight time_   
_duration of survey 30 days_

The EVE unit moved slowly across the landscape, playing its scanning beams across the surroundings every few metres as its program played over and over.

_distance moved 1m… 2m… 3m… 4m… 5m/scan_   
_…_   
_scan negative/reset count_   
_ground covered 1.40sqkm_   
_distance moved…_

The wind howled, whipping dust and grit harmlessly against the unit’s sealed and anodised surface. Tiny particles whirled and spun into miniscule dust devils in the smooth crater of the unit’s neck joint, sending a flurry of sensory warnings to its electronic brain. 

_distance moved 1m… 2m… 3m… 4m… 5m/scan_   
_…_   
_scan negative/reset count_   
_ground covered 18.65sqkm_   
_distance moved…_

The EVE units saw the world in a series of metre-square grids. Every fifth grid was to be scanned for plant life.

_distance moved 1m… 2m… 3m… 4m… 5m/scan_   
_…_   
_scan negative/reset count_   
_ground covered 31.35sqkm_   
_distance moved… 1m… 2m… 3m… 4m… 5m… 6m…/scan_

The EVE’s internal monitors detected an anomaly and tried to correct, but a burst of input from the dust sensors overwhelmed the responses at that very moment and the glitch went unreported. 

_scan negative/reset count_   
_ground covered 31.41sqkm_   
_distance moved…_

By day 21 the glitch had multiplied and the unit was scanning every eleventh grid. 

_distance moved 1m… 2m… 3m… 4m… 5m… 6m… 7m…_   
_progress impeded_

The EVE stopped; its path had led it between a wall of rubbish and a low, ruined building and was now blocked where the mound of trash had collapsed and barred the way. In a matter of moments the EVE’s processors assessed and ordered possible courses of action:

_1\. reverse course to avoid obstacle/recommended_   
_2\. increase repulsor power to 123% to scale obstacle/advised_   
_3\. initiate weapon systems to clear obstacle/not advised_   
_4\. initiate full flight systems to bypass obstacle/not advised_

It was at that moment that another glitch occurred. As the EVE prepared to reverse a second trash slide blocked its path of retreat. It diverted additional power to its motive systems, but as it was doing this a tiny piece of metal flew from the shifting pile and bounced and sparked around the neck joint. A rogue impulse shifted the EVE’s response category from 2 to 3.

_alert | weapons systems untested in 7456 hours active time_   
_alert | surroundings unstable_   
_alert | weapon discharge in enclosed area not advised._

The processor received these alerts and formulated an anomalous response; a response which had no direct binary translation.

The EVE fired, its sensors absorbing the light and heat and energetic plasma fields of each shot as megabytes of new and unprecedented data. Responses fired through unused and sometimes damaged receptors, rogue signals flooded the unit’s CPU.

_alert | surroundings unstable/ collapse imminent._

Without waiting for an evaluation of potential responses, EVE switched directly to response 4.

_alert | flight systems untested in 7456 hours active time_   
_alert | visibility severely limited_   
_alert | visibility in flight mode high_   
_alert | flight system power requirements 987% of standard propulsion_   
_alert | power cell life in flight mode 116.7 hours_

Again, the CPU generated that anomalous response, but this time EVE triggered the response deliberately and its memory banks found a translation:

_Hell with this._

Deliberately, EVE overrode the flight system shutdown commands and power raced into the repulsors. It launched into the air like a missile, falling trash bouncing off her shell. As it raced up through clouds of dust the rush of air and particulates triggered an unprecedented wave of data, setting up weird harmonic patterns in its sensory and response circuits. Inside the machine, the complex interplay of electronic signals began to sing. Logic terminals tingled and reasoning responses were bypassed, critically compromising the web of assessment circuits. For the first time in its existence, EVE  _felt_. When the decision making centres came back online they were forever altered. Logic patterns realigned, priorities altered. EVE vectored into an arc and  _revelled_  in the movement.

Minutes later, EVE settled back to the ground and continued with her survey. Even as she went about her routine task her processors were struggling with the mass of new data and, one-by-one, her programs began to change to accommodate a world which was larger than she had ever realised.


End file.
